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Name-squatter fails to flog @roma Twitter handle to City of Rome

Cybersquatting Spaniard's cash-gouging plan flops in puff of apathy

Rome's authorities are totally uninterested in owning the Twitter account @Roma as their city's official voice in cyberspace, despite the council currently making do with the clunky @romacapitaleTW account instead.

The current owner of the name, enterprising Spaniard Javier Castaño, is stuck with it for the time being, after his dreams of making bags of cash selling it to the authorities were thwarted, The Local reported.

When Twitter first started, Castaño, who shines shoes for a living after losing his job as a graphic designer, thought it would be a good idea to set up accounts for cities and countries around the world, hoping he could later gouge them for loads of money to get their names back. Unfortunately for him, Twitter bans people from selling off accounts to others who might want the name.

When he realised his cunning plan for Twitter riches was a non-starter, Castaño graciously contacted authorities and governments to let them know they could have their names back for free, but discovered that nobody actually wants the account @Roma, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported.

Although Castaño managed to offload @Malaga and @Canada to the relevant bodies, he's had no response to his public appeal to get @Roma back in the right hands. ®